Surf's Up

Surf's Up - (Wii)
Developer: Ubisoft
Format: Wii
Genre: Arcade


Will this game make you a slave to the wave?



Suppress your groans - this is not your usual movie tie in chugging out the film's plot and recreating the merchandise-friendly chase sequences. Here, the penguins rule the waves and it's only the surfing action that takes centre stage.

P-P-P-Pick a penguin, kit him out with the latest in boards and head out into the watery stuff. That really is the premise and the be all of the game. But that's ok because the surfing action, especially with the Wii's controller, has a suitably addictive and fluid feel. There are a host of courses, time trails, idol collecting and trick competitions to have you reaching the ultimate surf-off with the movie's Tank character. You'll get to rail slide off rocks, scoot to the top of a barrel and flip off the top performing basic grab tricks so overall this is probably one of the best surfing simulations for some time. This is where it ends though. There's just not enough longevity in the game, you'll quickly finish it and on more than one occasion it feels like you're on rails way too much.

In fact this plays and ends up feeling like a skatboard game in different clothes. The water and backgrounds are sumptuous, all very Hawaii-like, but the actual physical gameplay loses its sparkle after a short time. And they're missing a trick with the Wii - you only use the remote to get a speed burst by jerking downwards on it. That's it; no manic arm flapping in your front room with this one and all of this while an inane indie rock soundtrack irritates your ears. Ten out of ten for effort in moving away from the urge to merely replicate the movie but a low score for execution.

Fans of the feathered friends will warm to this watery action, for everyone else and older gamers it may be a case of try before you buy.